Isolation of Vibrio cholerae 01 from the stools of persons with diarrheal illness remains the definitive diagnostic method for cholera. The most commonly performed methods for serodiagnosis of Vibrio cholerae O1 infection involve measurement of antibacterial antibodies by agglutination or vibriocidal antibody essays. A variety of methods have been used to measure the antibacterial immune responses of humans to infection with V. cholerae. The vibriocidal antibody test has been used extensively for serologic surveys, since it is amenable to the titration of large numbers of sera by microtiter methodology, and the acquisition of antibody through natural exposure or vaccination shows an apparent correlation to immunity on a population basis and in volunteers challenged with the organism. Other procedures such as the indirect hemagglutination test and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) have been investigated by a number of workers. While O antibodies are clearly reactive in the vibriocidal test, it is possible that other antigens such as outer membrane proteins and cell-bound hemagglutinins participate in the vibriocidal reaction. The development of cell culture models for detecting cholera toxin (CT) also provided marked improvement in the ability to measure antitoxic antibodies.

4.Benenson, A. S.,, A.Saad,, W. H.Mosley,, and A.Ahmed. 1968. Serological studies in cholera. 3. Serum toxin neutralization—rise in titre in response to infection with Vibrio cholerae, and the level in the “normal” population of East Pakistan. Bull. W.H.O. 38:287–295.

13.Finkelstein, R. A.1962. Vibriocidal antibody inhibition (VAT) analysis: a technique for the identification of the predominant vibriocidal antibodies in serum and for the detection and identification of Vibrio cholerae antigens. J. Immunol. 89:264–271.